The children at the Goducate Children’s Home in Cambodia are learning several livelihood skills that they can apply when they leave the Home and return to their communities. One advantage they have over other children in Cambodia is their education in English. To give them on-the-job training in perhaps starting English-learning centers, and to help others in the community, a team from the Home has been going to the neighboring areas to hold English-language classes. The team is made up of 4 teachers from the Goducate Children’s Home and 7 of the older children.
These English classes have been held in three areas, either once or twice a week.The classes are held in the open, with the students sitting on chairs provided by the residents there, who welcome the chance for their children to learn English. Most of the students are children aged 5 to 7.
The classes are not only helping the children at the Home to help themselves when they return to their communities, but they are also teaching them how to help others.
Teaching through actionTeaching the alphabetTeaching through games
Goducate is about to start a language center in Batam, Indonesia. The building has been acquired and is undergoing renovations.
The Goducate Language Center will train people from other countries who will be serving as community development workers in Indonesia. A working knowledge of the language is essential if these community development workers are to be able to help needy Indonesians effectively. Since English is also an important language to know, either for teaching the needy or to communicate more widely, the language center will also offer English lessons.
The Goducate Language Center’s three-storey building will be equipped with dormitories, classrooms, and a spacious area for more interactive learning.
Unpacking new furnitureAssembling new furniture
Guest writer Mel, Staff from Goducate Training Center
75 people have become members of Goducate’s Global Life Hub since its launch in August. They are mostly undergraduates, and some are working professionals. They enjoy coming to the center to practise their English and to learn about the outside world, and are generally reluctant to leave.
There are three regular activities. Every Tuesday there are sessions with a group of 4 American business consultants. Every Wednesday, members are given a general topic to talk about, to let them practise public speaking. And every Friday, there are group discussions and debates to enable the members to learn how to reason, to organize their ideas, to think out of the box, and to present and defend their perspective in a convincing way.
Listening to speaker from a multinational corporation talking about life in the corporate worldAt a session by the American teamGroup activity practising English
In addition, twice a month people working in multinational corporations are invited to the Global Life Hub to talk to the members about corporate life. For instance, we’ve had a speaker with 10 years’ experience in the software industry talk about how the corporate world is different from the college world, and about the interviewer’s perspective on interviews. He demonstrated his talk with an interview of one of the members. On another occasion, in a very interactive session, a speaker who had worked in the USA for couple of years and now working in Mumbai came to guide students about how they should plan their career paths. There has also been a mechanical engineer who worked in Saudi Arabia for a couple of months who shared about life and opportunities in the Middle East.
Members have also learnt about life in Australia and the culture and education system there from an Australian English-language teacher, and about American festivals and food from visiting American consultants.
To teach members leadership skills, two of them were appointed the organizers of an excursion last month to explore Hyderabad city. They organized the whole program, spoke only in English the whole day, and made all the other participants feel comfortable speaking in English even outside the center.
We believe that the activities offered at the Global Life Hub will give our existing members, and we hope many more potential members, a good foundation for fitting into the modern job market.
